Dating wigton

A larger monument to the Covenanters stands on Windy Hill in the town. Other sources have suggested a Norse root with 'Vik' meaning 'bay', giving the origin as a translation of 'The town on the bay'.

The surrounding area (the Machars peninsula) is rich in prehistoric remains, most notably the Torhousekie Standing Stones, a Neolithic stone circle set on a raised platform of smaller stones.

Today Wigtown is known as Scotland's "book town" and is thus compared to Hay-on-Wye in Wales.

However, in contrast to Hay-on-Wye, Wigtown's status as a book town was planned, in order to regenerate a very depressed town (the main employers, the creamery and distillery, having closed in the 1990s), although the distillery (Bladnoch) has now re-opened and is distilling its own malt whisky.

Town Council improvements in the early 19th century greatly altered the face of Main Street.

In 1809 town magistrates resolved to improve the main street at a moderate expense by lifting the pavement and making a gravel road around each side of the street, the outer edge of which was to be 44 feet (13 metres) from the edge of the houses.Wigtown's grammar school is the oldest in Wigtownshire.Until 1712 the school does not appear to have been conducted in a building set aside for that purpose, but in that century the council ordered all inhabitants owning horses to bring a draught of timber from a nearby wood to help in the construction of a schoolhouse.A "plantation" was to be left in the centre of the thoroughfare, which was later laid out with shrubs and enclosed by a rail.In 1830, the Wigtown Bowling Club obtained a footing in the "plantation", and by the turn of the 20th century the square was used largely by bowlers and tennis players.Much of the square was planted up in the mid-20th century, but in 2002 it was restored to the elegant Georgian open plan fringed by trees.